What's Here

Our Project Summary

Calculus in the New Millennium In a typical year at SF
State, only 50% of the 800 students who enroll in Calculus I will earn
a grade of C or better and thereby qualify to continue into Calculus
II. According to reports shared in Fall 2005 by CSU Math Chairs,
success rates are about as low at many other CSU campuses. Calculus is
a gatekeeper to entry into most science majors, so improving the
success rate in calculus could well allow more students to succeed in
the sciences. Two primary reasons for failure stand out: poor
preparation and lack of student engagement. Many students lack
prerequisite skills in algebra, trigonometry and logical reasoning, and
the same students find it difficult to learn calculus in the present
lecture format. This is not to blame the students, many of whom spend
hours each week struggling to read their book and do their homework.
They just lack the strategies to learn calculus without additional
support.

This project is designed to provide calculus students
with additional support in a cost-effective manner through the
utilization of on-line, interactive curricular materials and classroom
instruction based on the principles of active and collaborative
learning. The key concept is interactive, because interactivity is the
component that is missing from current calculus instruction. The
course redesign will include the following features:• Calculus
concepts and methods will be introduced through a weekly two hour
on-line calculus lesson interspersed at intervals of no more than ten
minutes with interactive activities. The activities must be
successfully completed to continue the lesson, and the system has the
capability of tracking student participation.• Concepts and
methods will be reinforced in classes meeting three hours each week
under the guidance of an instructor trained in collaborative group,
active learning methods and following a carefully prepared syllabus. •
Six times each semester students will be asked to write a literate
answer to a problem. They will state in complete sentences what the
problem asks, how they found their answer, and what their answer means.
These papers are usually little more than one page long, but that is
more formal writing than most calculus courses require. We believe that
even occasional writing shows students the thought processes they
should employ when solving problems and prepares them for more advanced
work in mathematics. These solutions will be graded by the classroom
instructors. Contact: Arek Goetz, goetz@math.sfsu.edu